Chubarov: Our task is to further drive RF into the corner

The Head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people confidently declares that any insults by the Russian Federation will not change the political vector of Ukraine regarding the de-occupation of the Crimea.

KYIV (QHA) -

The Head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Refat Chubarov commented on yesterday's statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry regarding the decision of the International Court of Justice on interim measures in the case of Ukraine against Russia.

According to him, such statements are typical behavior of the aggressor country, which has not changed for many centuries.

“It would seem that the decision, which is clearly stated in English, which was commented by dozens of leading politicians and which is translated into Ukrainian and Russian by specialists, is clear and concise - Russia must cancel the decision to ban the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people. But still it provokes such a reaction of the Russian Foreign Ministry! Yesterday the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that it is totally different, and Ukraine got this all wrong ... That's how Moscow has behaved for centuries in all spheres, including the interpretation of history," Chubarov said in a comment to QHA correspondent.

The Head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people confidently declares that any insults by the Russian Federation will not change the political vector of Ukraine regarding the Crimea, but will only strengthen it in the struggle for the captured peninsula and for the right of the Crimean Tatars to live on their native land.

"We should just do our job - open exhibitions, study our history, act in the interests of our people, defend ourselves in the international arena, seek such decisions of the International Court of Justice - and continue to drive Russia into a corner. Let them declare and shout whatever they want, because everything they shout is not true," Refat Chubarov summed up.

Previously QHA reported that a member of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Gayana Yuksel urged Russia to implement the interim decision of the International Court of Justice and to stop the persecution of the Crimean Tatars in the occupied Crimea, as well as to lift the ban on the activities of their representative body, the Mejlis. Gayana Yuksel voiced the corresponding demand in her speech at the 16th session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York.

Earlier, April 19, the International Court of Justice supported Ukraine's demand on the Ukrainian lawsuit against the Russian Federation to introduce preliminary restrictive measures against Russia for violating the Convention on racial discrimination to protect national minorities in the annexed Crimea. In particular, the court stated that the Russian Federation must stop oppression of ethnic Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars on the peninsula and lift the ban on activities of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people.

According to representative of Ukraine in the International Court of the United Nations Elena Zerkal, Ukraine expects Russia to immediately implement the court's decision, and calls on the international community to hold Russia accountable in case of its non-fulfillment.

However, Russia interpreted the decision of the court in a different way, saying that it does not contain a demand to resume the activities of the Mejlis.

At the same time, 45 countries - members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) signed a declaration demanding Russia to implement the decision of the International Court of Justice and resume activities of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, as well as stop the persecution of the Ukrainian language in the Crimea.